Jim Backus

A public memorial service for actor-comedian Jim Backus, voice of the quarrelsome "Mr. Magoo" throughout that animated figure's lengthy career and a star of the old "Gilligan's Island" TV series, will be held Wednesday at noon at the Screen Directors Guild, 7920 Sunset Blvd. Backus was 76 when he died July 3.

Russell Johnson's fateful trip started with a three-hour tour in 1964 and lasted the rest of his life. A handsome war veteran who grew up in a Philadelphia orphanage, Johnson spent 14 years playing bad guys in TV and movie westerns. Then he reluctantly agreed to audition for a new comedy series called "Gilligan's Island," a program that would move critics like UPI's Rick DuBrow to declare: "It is impossible that a more inept, moronic or humorless show has ever appeared on the home tube.

Actor Jim Backus, who played Thurston Howell III on "Gilligan's Island" and did the voice of the cartoon character Mr. Magoo, died today of pneumonia, a St. John's Hospital spokeswoman said in Santa Monica. He was 76. Backus died at 8:45 a.m. His physician listed the cause of death as pneumonia.

"Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol," the first animated yuletide special, premiered on NBC in 1962 and introduced a lot of youngsters to Charles Dickens' beloved "A Christmas Carol. " Featuring a melodic score by Broadway composers Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, and a masterful turn as the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge by the nearsighted cartoon character Quincy Magoo, the hourlong special quickly became a perennial on NBC during the 1960s and has lived on in syndication and DVD. But the special encountered a few challenges that could have turned this "Christmas Carol" into a humbug instead of a delicious serving of "razzleberry dressing" and "Woofle jelly cake.

Henny Backus, 93, an actress and the widow of actor Jim Backus, with whom she wrote several books, has died. Backus died Dec. 9 at UCLA Medical Center after a series of strokes. Backus, who was born in Brooklyn, made her debut as a Broadway showgirl in the 1920s. She was known best for her role as Cora Dithers in the 1960s situation comedy "Blondie," which also starred her husband.

Jim Backus, a celebrated film and television character actor who, to his dismay, will probably live on in America's imagination as the voice of a myopic curmudgeon named Mr. Magoo, died Monday of pneumonia. The 76-year-old performer had been admitted to St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica on June 13 with double pneumonia complicated by long-standing Parkinson's disease.

October 16, 1995 | ROB WISHART, Rob Wishart is an assistant editor of the Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Service

I am legally blind and have been called "Mr. Magoo" by taunting jerks with great frequency since childhood. So, I was hoping the near-sighted cartoon character had died with his voice, the late actor Jim Backus. But, the studio viewed as synonymous with family values announced recently (Morning Report, Calendar, Sept. 29) that it has purchased the film rights to "Mr. Magoo" and has hired a producer and writer to make a live-action film (humans instead of animated characters).

Russell Johnson's fateful trip started with a three-hour tour in 1964 and lasted the rest of his life. A handsome war veteran who grew up in a Philadelphia orphanage, Johnson spent 14 years playing bad guys in TV and movie westerns. Then he reluctantly agreed to audition for a new comedy series called "Gilligan's Island," a program that would move critics like UPI's Rick DuBrow to declare: "It is impossible that a more inept, moronic or humorless show has ever appeared on the home tube.

You picture a race driver and you picture a guy with the visual acuity of a circling hawk or a Ted Williams reading the rotation on a curveball. If ever you needed a guy who could go right down to the bottom of an eye chart, who could tell you the sex of a flying gnat, it would seem to be in the corners at Indy. Much has been made of the fact Danny Sullivan is trying to drive Indy with a broken arm. But look at it this way: He can see, can't he? How would you like to drive the Indy 500 blindfolded?

Aldous Huxley's eyebrows are so caked with mud in the black-and-white photograph they look as though they might snap off. But the novelist hardly appears concerned with the future state of his eyebrows. More pressing, perhaps, is whether actor Jim Backus, encased in a coffin-like steam box nearby, might melt away more than a few extra martinis. Officially, Huxley was participating in one of the first "men's weeks" at the Golden Door Spa in San Marcos -- 50 years ago this year -- to give a lecture on the "mind-body as one word."

Aldous Huxley's eyebrows are so caked with mud in the black-and-white photograph they look as though they might snap off. But the novelist hardly appears concerned with the future state of his eyebrows. More pressing, perhaps, is whether actor Jim Backus, encased in a coffin-like steam box nearby, might melt away more than a few extra martinis. Officially, Huxley was participating in one of the first "men's weeks" at the Golden Door Spa in San Marcos -- 50 years ago this year -- to give a lecture on the "mind-body as one word."

Henny Backus, 93, an actress and the widow of actor Jim Backus, with whom she wrote several books, has died. Backus died Dec. 9 at UCLA Medical Center after a series of strokes. Backus, who was born in Brooklyn, made her debut as a Broadway showgirl in the 1920s. She was known best for her role as Cora Dithers in the 1960s situation comedy "Blondie," which also starred her husband.

October 16, 1995 | ROB WISHART, Rob Wishart is an assistant editor of the Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Service

I am legally blind and have been called "Mr. Magoo" by taunting jerks with great frequency since childhood. So, I was hoping the near-sighted cartoon character had died with his voice, the late actor Jim Backus. But, the studio viewed as synonymous with family values announced recently (Morning Report, Calendar, Sept. 29) that it has purchased the film rights to "Mr. Magoo" and has hired a producer and writer to make a live-action film (humans instead of animated characters).

A public memorial service for actor-comedian Jim Backus, voice of the quarrelsome "Mr. Magoo" throughout that animated figure's lengthy career and a star of the old "Gilligan's Island" TV series, will be held Wednesday at noon at the Screen Directors Guild, 7920 Sunset Blvd. Backus was 76 when he died July 3.

Jim Backus, a celebrated film and television character actor who, to his dismay, will probably live on in America's imagination as the voice of a myopic curmudgeon named Mr. Magoo, died Monday of pneumonia. The 76-year-old performer had been admitted to St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica on June 13 with double pneumonia complicated by long-standing Parkinson's disease.

Actor Jim Backus, who played Thurston Howell III on "Gilligan's Island" and did the voice of the cartoon character Mr. Magoo, died today of pneumonia, a St. John's Hospital spokeswoman said in Santa Monica. He was 76. Backus died at 8:45 a.m. His physician listed the cause of death as pneumonia.

Actor Jim Backus, who played Thurston Howell III on "Gilligan's Island" and did the voice of the cartoon character Mr. Magoo, died today of pneumonia, a St. John's Hospital spokeswoman said in Santa Monica. He was 76. Backus died at 8:45 a.m. His physician listed the cause of death as pneumonia.

"Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol," the first animated yuletide special, premiered on NBC in 1962 and introduced a lot of youngsters to Charles Dickens' beloved "A Christmas Carol. " Featuring a melodic score by Broadway composers Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, and a masterful turn as the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge by the nearsighted cartoon character Quincy Magoo, the hourlong special quickly became a perennial on NBC during the 1960s and has lived on in syndication and DVD. But the special encountered a few challenges that could have turned this "Christmas Carol" into a humbug instead of a delicious serving of "razzleberry dressing" and "Woofle jelly cake.

Actor Jim Backus, who played Thurston Howell III on "Gilligan's Island" and did the voice of the cartoon character Mr. Magoo, died today of pneumonia, a St. John's Hospital spokeswoman said in Santa Monica. He was 76. Backus died at 8:45 a.m. His physician listed the cause of death as pneumonia.

You picture a race driver and you picture a guy with the visual acuity of a circling hawk or a Ted Williams reading the rotation on a curveball. If ever you needed a guy who could go right down to the bottom of an eye chart, who could tell you the sex of a flying gnat, it would seem to be in the corners at Indy. Much has been made of the fact Danny Sullivan is trying to drive Indy with a broken arm. But look at it this way: He can see, can't he? How would you like to drive the Indy 500 blindfolded?